www.huttnews.co.nz
TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2013
INSIDE: LETTERS 14 WHAT'S ON 23 CROSSWORD 23 DINING GUIDE 24 SPORT 55
Sweat it
Top Town-type fun returns
By KAROLINE TUCKEY
Sweating it out: Sophie Loomans, front, and
Teporah Stowers demonstrate the Hill Flag
Grab, one of the challenges that will be part of
the Sweat City games.
A new event is bringing the spirit of the
popular 80s television show Top Town back
to Lower Hutt.
Sweat City will pit teams of five against
each other in eight obstacles of fun and
fitness challenges for all levels, organiser
Katie Brown said.
The challenges, such as The Power Car
Push, The Water Walk, The Hill Flag Grab
and the Weight Mover, require different
skills, from patience and strategy to
strength and speed, so teams of different
abilities can work together, she said.
Ms Brown, a fitness instructor in her
spare time, said she was inspired to create
Sweat City when she began looking for fun
fitness events and found most were
running-based.
So she drew on her childhood building
Top Town and Krypton Factor type obsta-
cles in the back yard.
I wanted to create something fun for the
local community to get active and moving.
Anyone can be involved. I wanted people
to be able to bring their kids down and
compete together with them, something
that not many fitness events offer.''
Te Whiti Park was chosen for the April
21 event so the fire breaks can be used in
an uphill flag grab sprint that will take
grit, she said.
Three entry categories offer a range from
tough competition'' to fitness and fun''
and prizes will be offered for best team
spirit, costume, overall winners and fairest
male or female, along with spot prizes.
The response has been enthusiastic
already, Ms Brown said, with several teams
from local touch rugby clubs entered and
women's fitness groups expressing interest.
Ms Brown hopes to make Sweat City an
annual event and is seeking sponsors for
prizes and loans of suitable obstacles to be
used on the course.
For more information or to enter visit
thesweatcitygames.com.
Progress drags on Housing NZ homes
By NICHOLAS BOYACK
No one to play with: Allanah Kumar has no one to play with in Durham Cr. Most of the houses on the street are
vacant HNZ properties. However her father Amit is not worried by all the boarded up properties.
Progress is grinding on dealing
with empty Housing New Zealand
properties.
The Hutt News is fielding an
increasing number of queries
about boarded up HNZ properties
throughout the city, with people
saying it is not a good look and a
waste of resources. There have
been complaints about how long it
is taking to begin the rebuild in
the Farmer Cr, Pomare, neigh-
bourhood.
Many of the empty houses and
units have been assessed as an
earthquake
risk because
chimneys are not is not securely
braced.
Last week Mayor Ray Wallace
met with three senior HNZ offici-
als for an update. He told us later
he had expressed concern that the
properties would become vandal-
ised if left empty for too long and
sought assurances the corporation
had plans to upgrade the proper-
ties as quickly as possible.
HNZ told him that it had put
the upgrading work out for tender
but only two responses resulted,
and they were not satisfactory.
The mayor said HNZ staff mem-
ber Renee Martin had agreed to
provide the newspaper with an
update.
However, she refused to com-
ment and instead referred us to a
PR person.
We emailed these questions:
Was what Mayor Wallace told us
a fair summary of the meeting?
WhereisHNZuptointerms of
the tender process?
When is work planned to start?
Exactly how many properties are
currently empty for earthquake
strengthening in Lower Hutt?
What is HNZ doing to make sure
empty properties are not vandal-
ised?
Why are the houses being
boarded up, rather than just left
empty?
The reply ignored our question
about the tender process but said
work would start later this month
upgrading 51 earthquake-prone
buildings in the Wellington
region.
In Lower Hutt, tenants have
been moved from 124 units.
They did not say how many of
the 51 units to be worked on are in
the Hutt, nor what plans there are
for other Hutt addresses.
Some of the properties have
been boarded up to deter vandals
and to make it harder for people
to break in.
HNZ has installed alarms and
is working with police and secur-
ity companies to deter vandalism.
Hampton
and Durham
crescents have numerous boarded
up properties.
Sam Tawa said he had been liv-
ing in his HNZ property about 15
years. His property does not have
a chimney and he has been
allowed to stay in it.
He is not worried about living in
an empty street as it is now nice
and quiet.
All the s... stirrers'' have been
moved out and he now sees a lot
less of the police.
Initially there was a problem
with people stealing copper and
water cylinders but he says secur-
ity guards have been vigilant
keeping troublemakers away.
Amit Kumar, who rents a pri-
vate property in the street, says
HNZ wrote to him telling him
what was happening. There have
been no problems with vandals
and he regularly sees security
guards.
I have seen them checking hou-
ses at one o'clock in the morning.''
Empty houses are police dog
training site -- page 21